Open Back Swimwear

What 'open-back' means

Open-back is a construction detail, not a fabric. It describes the back of the suit — open, low or cut across the shoulders or spine — on an otherwise standard one-piece or bikini. The front, the support and the coverage are unchanged; the back is simply finished differently.

What keeps the style in place is the strap system: adjustable, crisscross or racerback-style anchoring at the front and shoulders. That is why strap adjustability matters more on an open-back suit than on a fully-featured back.

What's in the pool

138 styles, led by one-pieces — the open back is fundamentally a one-piece construction feature — with open-back bikinis alongside for those who want the same back line in two pieces.

The honest read: this is the store's open-back construction range. Not every style in the store has an open back, and not every one-piece does — only the styles built with the open, low or crisscross back are here.

Open back vs. performance

The open back is a style and sunbathing choice. Swimmers who do frequent laps tend to prefer a solid back with no cutouts — it moves less and stays anchored stroke after stroke — so the two reads of 'one-piece' are different animals: the open-back for the beach day, the solid-back for the water.

Both can be worn for casual swimming; the difference is what you are optimizing for. If the session is mostly in the water, lean solid back and check the active-swimsuits page. If it is mostly poolside, the open back is the look.

The store behind the page

Sunnybikinis.com is a US swimwear store with hundreds of styles across bikinis, one-pieces, tankinis and swimwear layers, most from about $19. This collection reads the range through the lens of the open-back construction.